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The Diamondbacks’ home opener on Thursday night was arguably their most anticipated in more than 20 years.
They won the NL pennant last year. They have a young, exciting team. They just put an exclamation point on an already productive offseason with the reported signing of free-agent left-hander Jordan Montgomery earlier this week.
Of course, Thursday’s game against the Colorado Rockies was not the World Series. It was 1-of-162. Whether a win or loss, it meant relatively little.
But there is something to be said for getting off to a good start. And, before a sold-out crowd of 49,011 — the highest announced attendance at a Diamondbacks home game in nearly five years — the Diamondbacks pummeled the inferior Rockies by a final score of 16-1.
“When you draw up an Opening Day type of a game, this is probably times 10,” manager Torey Lovullo said. “I can’t express to you how ready I felt this team was, what they were accepting of throughout the course of spring training. And a lot of that showed up today.”
The Diamondbacks scored 14 of their runs in the third inning, setting numerous franchise records in the process. Here is how that frame transpired:
Suffice it to say Thursday night went pretty well for the Diamondbacks. Here is a look at all of the history they made along the way.
Of course, 14 represents the number of runs the Diamondbacks scored in the third inning.
That is a franchise record for runs in an inning, topping the team’s previous high of 13, which was set on April 11, 2010 against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Those 14 runs also set the modern-day record (since 1901) for runs scored in an inning on Opening Day.
“I said it three or four times,” Lovullo said, “I’ve never seen anything like this. And it just kept going. It just kept happening.
“It was just real good approaches to the baseball, and nobody’s trying to hit the ball out of the ballpark. They’re just trying to try to do what they do best and stay inside of the baseball and just use an all-field approach.”
Also a franchise record, 13 is the number of Diamondbacks hits in that third inning. The team’s previous record for hits in an inning was 10, set on Aug. 11, 2015 against the Philadelphia Phillies.
Put simply, 13 hits in a game is impressive. Thirteen hits in an inning is outrageous.
Last year, the Diamondbacks had 13 or more hits in just 15 of their regular season games. That means they had fewer than 13 hits in more than 90 percent of their games.
This is the number of batters the Diamondbacks sent to the plate in the third inning. Yes, they batted around twice in one inning.
When Alek Thomas stepped in the box as the Diamondbacks’ 18th hitter, Geraldo Perdomo — who started the onslaught with a single more than 30 minutes prior — entered the on-deck circle.
“Perdomo was getting ready to have his third at-bat in one inning,” Lovullo said. “There’ll be games this year that Perdomo is going to probably get three at-bats in an entire game.”
Diamondbacks starting pitcher Zac Gallen was similarly stunned.
“I’ve never seen each guy get two at-bats in an inning,” Gallen said. “Maybe little league? I don’t know. Seriously, I don’t say that as like a slight, like that’s, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen that happen.”
The Diamondbacks were the 10th team in the past 50 years to send 18 or more batters to the plate in one inning.
The last team to do it was, ironically, the Rockies on July 30, 2010 against the Chicago Cubs. One could argue the Rockies’ feat was less impressive than the Diamondbacks’, given that Colorado did it at hitter-friendly Coors Field.
Fifty-nine is the number of pitches that Diamondbacks hitters saw in the third inning. It is the third-highest mark in franchise history. The franchise record for pitches seen in one inning is 66, set against the San Diego Padres in 2017.
Given that 18 guys hit in the inning, 59 total pitches is actually relatively low. On average, D-backs hitters saw an average of 3.3 pitches per plate appearance in the inning. Last year, the league average number of pitches seen per plate appearance was 3.9.
Much to the chagrin of Diamondbacks starting pitcher Zac Gallen, 39 is the approximate number of minutes that elapsed between Gallen’s last pitch in the top of the third and his first pitch in the top of the fourth.
In order to stay loose, Gallen played catch in the batting cages twice and jumped rope.
“You don’t practice sitting for 45 minutes and then throwing,” Gallen said after the game, “so that was a little bit of an adjustment.”
Gallen added that he has never had to get loose multiple times like that in between innings. Of course, he was still happy to have all that run support.
“Obviously, that makes my job, our job as pitchers a lot easier when they can get go out there and give you that much support,” he said. “I think next time, I’d rather them just do it in 10 minutes.”
As a result of their historic third inning, the Diamondbacks scored 16 runs on 16 hits in the first three innings in the game.
Only one other time since 1974 has a team had 16 or more runs and 16 or more hits that early in a game. That other instance came in 2003, when the Boston Red Sox out-slugged the then-Florida Marlins by an eventual final score of 25-8.
The last team to score 16 or more runs on Opening Day was the Atlanta Braves, who did so against the Chicago Cubs in 2010.
Given the final score of 16-1, 15 represents the Diamondbacks’ margin of victory on Thursday night. It was their highest margin of victory ever on Opening Day. Their previous high was 11, which occurred in 2011 when they beat the Cincinnati Reds, 13-2.
The Diamondbacks’ 15-run margin of victory was also their highest ever against the Rockies. Their previous high was 11, set in 2017 when they beat the Rockies 16-5 at Coors Field.
Top photo: Joe Rondone/The Republic
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